Beneath the Lion's Gaze -- Maaza Mengiste, Paperback

This memorable, heartbreaking story opens in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia, 1974, on the eve of a revolution. Yonas kneels in his mother's prayer room, pleading to his god for an end to the violence that has wracked his family and country. His father, Hailu, a prominent doctor, has been ordered to report to jail after helping a victim of state-sanctioned torture to die. And Dawit, Hailu's youngest son, has joined an underground resistance movement--a choice that will lead to more upheaval and bloodshed across a ravaged Ethiopia.

Beneath the Lion's Gaze tells a gripping story of family, of the bonds of love and friendship set in a time and place that has rarely been explored in fiction. It is a story about the lengths human beings will go in pursuit of freedom and the human price of a national revolution. Emotionally gripping, poetic, and indelibly tragic, Beneath The Lion's Gaze is a transcendent and powerful debut.

Author: Maaza Mengiste
Publisher: W. W. Norton & Company
Published: 01/03/2011
Pages: 320
Binding Type: Paperback
Weight: 0.80lbs
Size: 8.20h x 5.40w x 0.90d
ISBN: 9780393338881

Review Citation(s):
New York Times Book Review 01/30/2011 pg. 24